In a conventional print processing system including a printer capable of designating a plurality of print conditions, e.g., print conditions such as color tone and resolution, these print conditions are fixed or explicitly designated by the user. Edit print setting of printing data of two pages on one page at once, or adding a date or predetermined frame to an image and printing them is also explicitly designated by the user.
As a print processing system of causing a printer having a plurality of print modes, e.g., PDL (Page Description Language) mode and image mode to print data, there is proposed a system having an automatic print mode selection function of automatically selecting a print mode used for printing in print processing (specifically, processing by a printer driver) (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-129583). In the PDL mode, a host converts application data into PDL data containing a command in a format interpretable by a printer and transmits the PDL data to the printer. In the image mode, the host converts application data into bitmap data and transmits the bitmap data to the printer.
To decide print conditions, the print processing system having this automatic print mode selection function checks print contents to analyze the type of document to be printed, and automatically sets a print mode based on the analysis result.
This system analyzes print contents and determines a print mode even when a print mode which should be set in automatic setting due to print conditions explicitly designated by the user. As a result, the time taken to decide a print mode becomes long, and the total print time also becomes long because of the time for analyzing print contents and deciding a print mode.
As for a processing print function which cannot be executed in a given print mode as an automatic setting choice, the user cannot select a print mode for realizing this function when a print mode is automatically selected. In this case, no choice is displayed for the user.